The Beginning

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom^(A) as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2} For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.^{(B) 3} I came to you^(C) in weakness^(D) with great fear and trembling.^{(E) 4} My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,^(F) but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,^{(G) 5} so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.^(H)

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,^(I) but not the wisdom of this age^(J) or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.^{(K) 7} No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery^(L) that has been hidden^(M) and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age^(N) understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.^{(O) 9} However, as it is written:

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed^(Q) to us by his Spirit.^(R)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts^(S) except their own spirit^(T) within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit^(U) of the world,^(V) but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom^(W) but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^{[c] 14} The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God^(X) but considers them foolishness,^(Y) and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit^(Z) makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,

But we have the mind of Christ.^(AB)

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty^(A) and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.^{(B) 20} Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,^(C) but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”^(D)

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming^(E) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(F) 22} You Samaritans worship what you do not know;^(G) we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(H) 23} Yet a time is coming and has now come^(I) when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit^(J) and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit,^(K) and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ)^(L) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”^(M)